During what we in the Lismore App family call, “The Catastrophe of Floods” on February 28, finishing over 2m above previous record major flood levels, and which left residents in outer communities trapped for weeks, Phil “Tully” Benfield went out and performed approx a hundred rescues in his boat.

Then, during the second most recent Lismore and Coraki flood that occurred, Tully was out again, this time he had joined forces with myself and others to support a well-coordinated effort with 8 boats mobilised, 3 coordinators in the Headquarters Van, sending out volunteers. Three more locations across the region to perform rescues, and welfare checks, for people and pets of concern, as well as deliver lifesaving medical supplies to cut-off communities.

With many volunteers on standby, we were supported by two critical medical runners, Ollie and Brad, delivering medical supplies to go with Medics on our boats for delivery to cut off Coraki, and outer areas.

Who is the man behind the cape, ferrying so many to safety? 

I asked Tully how he became the man he is today, with such high-level rescue skills, and what had led him to this place?

I was born in England and moved to Australia when I was four with my parents. I grew up in Grafton and went to Grafton High School.

I first got introduced to Whitewater when I was about 14, by a school teacher by the name of Graeme Gill and another with the last name, Mcalary. They took me out, I was a bit of a naughty kid. So the kayaking sort of kept me at school and motivated. And then I did a bit of competition slalom. 

Then my mum went to Cairns, and she went rafting on the Tully river. Just as I was ready to leave school, she came back and said, 'you should have a look at this. These guides are running river experiences, and they are paid for it'.

So, I moved up to Cairns, caught a train up from Grafton with a 100 bucks in my pocket. That's all I had but I was determined to be a river guide. I started as a commercial river guide in 1995 when I was about 18, and then I was here working for five years rafting. I got that into it and sort of got to travel the world rafting as a part of Australian Team Racing, I did that between 1997 and 2007.

Each country sends one team to race at the World Championships and here in Cairns, because we had a lot of really good guides, we were able to put a really good team together. We paddled around and competed against other areas of Australia to get into that spot. There's a six-man team, maybe a seven-man team and yeah, you basically race the six-man raft like a 14-foot raft, around slalom gates, downriver, short sprints. Normally Australia would average about the top seven in the world, which was pretty good. And yeah, that was it. Then I left."

So I finished that, in 1999. I realised there was no money in rafting so I joined the NSW Police Force. I policed for 20 years and I finished up there about two years ago.

I started at Kings Cross, then joined highway patrol in Sydney and then went out west to a place called Wanaaring. That's a small one-man station, where I was police and firefighter all in one. Then I moved to Grafton, Lismore and joined Police Rescue at Lismore, as well as Fire and Rescue in Lismore. I was a part of Police Rescue and Fire and Rescue during the 2017 floods but predominantly worked for Police Rescue then".

The reason I had to leave most of the agencies is that I had a bit of PTSD from policing. That was the reason for my exit from both NSW Police and Fire and Rescue, but over time you realise there's still a need to do good. Most people say I do it for other people. I'm not, I'm doing it for myself because I enjoy it. That makes me feel good.

I've got skills that I can help people with, so my care for other people is really low, to be honest. But if it makes me feel good, I'll do it. I couldn't just sit at home, watching it unfold on TV, knowing what I'm capable of and, you know, I wasn't dealing with dead bodies, I wasn't doing high volume, yuckiness. It was just helping people that needed it. And I've got a nice satisfaction from that.

When we spoke about the 2017 flood versus the Feb/March 2022 Catastrophic Flood Tully tells the difference for him as a first responder:

Yeah, well, knowing the water height from the 2017 flood and it wasn't too bad. 2017, we had a few people to pick up here and there but they were high and dry.

Knowing the water height from the 2017 flood and then knowing it's going to be another two meters plus on top of that, I thought people are going to be under in houses with water coming up and being trapped in roof cavities. And that's what it was. It was literally people in roofs, people with as much airspace trying to get them out under door seals in lots of hundreds of occasions, I'd say.

So I knew from my skills and experience in the agencies they couldn't handle that, with the amount of boats, the amount of staff needed that just aren’t there. It just had to be done. And the only way to get through that was the community coming together and get it done.

From there, I think if every community had the skills to be safe, and know what to do, every community will help each other. So it's a matter of training them up to be safe, or safer and comfortable to do it, and not be a hindrance. None of them were a hindrance at all. So, that's what every town should have and that's my goal, to travel between towns, in flood areas and train them up to be able to respond if they need, and I know that’s your shared goal Kate, which is how we have come together to plan a training program."

I asked Tully what he thought had gone wrong with the first flood response and why so many people were rescued by civilians or left waiting, some for weeks in outer, more remote areas, being supplied only by civilians for many days, such as in our operations?

Look, I don't know, I think every agency did what they could, on the ground level locally. But my, as you would suggest in your fire training as well as I, that the Firies do it well, in that they over send stuff to jobs, during big fires, and then pull back afterwards. Where anytime there's a flood, sending every agency, every boat, every resource to that area (to ensure it's adequately resourced) and if they don't need it, treat it as a holiday. Lismore having three or four boats with the SES was just never going to cut it. 

I think they're going to do their own internal reviews. And I think that may or may not work, but at the end of the day, no matter what they do, if we've got 100 boats in Lismore that are owned by private members of the public that are willing to help when times need, let them go, let them do it and that'll solve every problem, in every town.

It's all OK if all people in town are trained up to do safe recoveries, whether it be first aid or CPR, you know, if everyone's trained, then you've got the whole community able and capable, rather than relying on volunteers that are untrained, unskilled and capable to do a job that is not really their job, because they are affected too.

Tully has now chosen to look forwards. He works in a private Search and Recovery Operations Company and is joining forces with the Civilian Critical Response Unit and wants to create a fully safe and equipped crew who can then support the community, and continue training in as many communities as possible.

He is looking for funders and investors to ensure this can happen, with Garmin InReach Trackers and a SAS Style inflatable 4-metre flatboat that can be dropped in by helicopter, to remote communities if required, kitted out with safety and communication equipment critical to the crew's safety in these unsafe and highly dynamic and volatile environments.

He can be contacted via Facebook “Phillip Benfield” for anyone interested in training or funding, or contact our journalist Kate Coxall for interest in joining via email: katecoxall@gmail.com or her Facebook Page: Kate Coxall.